Two K Farms Cidery and Winery 2022 Bubbly Riesling Takes Top Honors November 15, 2024 — Winners have been announced in the 2024 Harvest Challenge Wine Competition. After two spirited days of judging,Two K Farms Cidery and Winery 2022 Bubbly Riesling took the top prize. It was also awarded Best of Show Sparkling Wine. Coming in at 97 points, judges praised the wine for its “Mouth watering citrus and honeysuckle”; “Lingering tropical finish”; and “Perfect bubbles.” They also called it “Well balanced.” With a record number of entries from across the globe, the Harvest Challenge bases judging on a group of vineyards (or even vines) from the same region, belonging to a specific appellation and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions and grapes that combine to give personality to the wine. In other competitions, terroir is ignored. At the Harvest Challenge, judges taste wines alongside other wines of the same appellation. W

With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic receding, wineries are increasingly upgrading and modernizing equipment for the vineyard, winemaking, and packaging to optimize and automate more manual processes. Machinery like depalletizers is gaining traction because they play a crucial role in automating the handling of bulk glass. Bulk glass lowers costs and the winery’s carbon footprint by eliminating third-party charges for packing glass into cases before delivery. It reduces the number of trucks (and thus CO2 emitted) by 35 percent or more. Mimi Storts, Senior Director of Planning and Operations at Hess Persson Estates, recently upgraded the Hess Collection bottling line. She explains, “At Hess Collection, we had only one bottling line, and it was nearing its end of life. Quality is number one, so we wanted the new bottling line to maintain that quality and retain our internal quality oversight.” Storts also needed two capabilities the old line didn’t have: to h

Afternoon Brief, March 14th

Sonoma County Supes Narrowly Approve Winery Events Ordinance: The hours-long discussion included a presentation from Permit Sonoma, questions and comments from board members, input from community members (on both sides of the issues) and the board’s discussion of concerns raised. In the end, the ordinance was approved with a narrow 3-2 vote...

Michigan Riesling and California Rosé Share Top Honors March 1, 2021 (Santa Rosa, Calif.) -- On a crisp midwinter day, 24 judges met to determine a winner in the International East Meets West Wine Challenge. For the first time in its storied history, two wines tied for top honors. A 2019 Bowers Harbor Vineyards Riesling (Michigan) took the top Eastern prize and a 2020 Trecini Rosé of Grenache was named Best of the West. In a direct face off, judges were equally impressed by both, and a tie was declared. Founded in 1975, the International Eastern Wine Competition is the oldest competition still in existence. Eligible wines can come from Central and South America, Europe, Africa, Mexico (mainland), Canada (except British Columbia), and all U.S. states not listed below. The West Coast Wine Competition was established in 1982 and is open to wines from Australia, China, India, Japan, Middle East, New Zealand, Pacific Rim nations, Russia, Tasmania, British Columbia (Canada), B